In this episode of Gweek, I spoke with Ted Adams the head of IDW, which publishes high-quality reproductions of original comic book art by greats such as Dave Stevens, Jack Kirby, Wally Wood, and Frank Frazetta. Brought to you by Stamps.com — get a $110 sign-up bonus with the offer code GWEEK! Read the rest

In Manassas City, Virginia, a teen boy who is accused of sending a sexually explicit video to his teen girlfriend by cellphone may have to go to a hospital and get an erection injection, then allow police to photograph him with his penis in an erect state.

In episode 183 of the Sword and Laser, Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt ponder on Matt Damon’s role in The Martian, why we love to hate villains, and the role of philosophy and ideology in Octavia Butler’s Dawn. Brought to you by Squarespace. Use offer code SWORD for a free trial and 10% off! Read the rest

First Look Media was founded to report on sensitive, adversarial stories about the world’s spy agencies. Imagine being the sysadmin in charge of ensuring that the spies being busted in the site’s articles didn’t hack the site itself.Read the rest

An excellent clip about Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground’s multimedia performances, from PBS’s equally fantastic Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film (2006), viewable in it entirety online (Part 1 and Part 2).

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — a pro-establishment, rock-ribbed bastion of pro-market thinking — has released a report predicting a collapse in global economic growth rates, a rise in feudal wealth disparity, collapsing tax revenue and huge, migrating bands of migrant laborers roaming from country to country, seeking crumbs of work. They prescribe “flexible” workforces, austerity, and mass privatization.

Breaking smallpox news this afternoon: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just announced that National Institutes of Health staff have discovered vials containing smallpox “sitting in a laboratory storage room in Bethesda.” The vials were labeled variola, which is the severe and most common form of smallpox according to CDC.